The number seven is paramount in the present-day world of Tom Izzo… not because he’s lucky, but because he’s so darn good at what he does.
Sunday in Syracuse, in a game that was as contentious and even as everyone expected it to be, Izzo’s Michigan State team had the final say on a last-minute overtime putback by Branden Dawson, edging past a determined Louisville side that ran out of shotmaking magic. If you love the number seven, Izzo owns multiple distinctions pertaining to that number.
He’s reached his seventh Final Four.
He’s reached his first Final Four as a 7 seed.
By reaching seventh heaven, Izzo has reached his third Final Four as a 5 seed or lower.
Izzo lost a 7-versus-4 East Regional final last year against a former Big East school (Connecticut) in the state of New York. This year, Izzo won a 7-versus-4 East final in the Empire State, taking down another school which had recently made its home in the Big East. In both of these East finals, the 7 seeds have won. The bitter taste of losing as a 4 seed in 2014 has been washed away by moving to the other side of the divide.
Now, some non-seven facts in light of Sunday’s result: Only three men — Coach K, John Wooden, and Dean Smith — have reached more Final Fours than Izzo. That’s an all-timer of a fact.
Here’s another: Izzo has had only one senior class depart from East Lansing without a Final Four — last year’s class. Today ensured that the number will stay at one instead of increasing to two.
Rick Pitino and Louisville — who were so close to winning this game, it should be pointed out; Mangok Mathiang twice came within inches of carrying the day for UL in the final five seconds — did just as good a job as Izzo and Michigan State when viewed from a broader perspective. Both coaches took highly flawed teams and put them together at the right time.
From the chaos and clutter of a game that started with symphonic offensive flow but devolved into a rough-and-tumble slugfest, what was it about Michigan State that gave the Spartans the final push across the finish line?
Izzo’s coaching can’t be ignored here, in much the same way that Pitino’s work with Anton Gill on Friday against North Carolina State enabled Louisville to play in this game in the first place.
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The most striking aspect of Michigan State’s ability to rise above Louisville in overtime is that two of the Spartans’ biggest players, Matt Costello and Gavin Schilling, had fouled out. The Spartans had to put Branden Dawson at the five spot on the floor and Marvin Clark, a 6-6 freshman, at the four spot. This should have been the time when Louisville big man Montrezl Harrell — brilliant in the regional semifinals on Friday and letter-perfect in the first half of this game, but sluggish in the second half against Michigan State — should have been able to regain form and get some layups or dunks. Yet, Dawson — who had struggled for so much of the weekend — was able to strip Harrell on occasion and generally keep him from getting to the rim. The work done by Dawson and Clark, who scored a huge bucket late in regulation to give Michigan State a one-point lead, manifested this team’s ability to shrug off extended stretches of time in which it looked very shaky.
Dawson’s ineffective weekend? It didn’t matter in overtime, when he dominated the paint and the glass.
Clark’s youthfulness and his two missed foul shots late in regulation, which almost cost his team this game? He blocked that out and rededicated himself to defense in the overtime period.
Unlikely players (Clark), resilient players (Dawson), and star players who played like stars (Travis Trice and Denzel Valentine) — Tom Izzo had to reassemble all of them and get them to finish games the way this team had failed to do in January and February.
Make all the “January, February, Izzo, April, May” jokes you want. When only three men have made more Final Fours than you have, and you’ve put three teams in the Final Four as a 5 seed or lower, you’re not the author of singular accidents.
You know what you’re doing, more than your many established and credentialed peers.
That’s what a legend is. Tom Izzo, now more than ever, has earned such status.
Seven is, for him and Michigan State, a number that’s not about luck.